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The Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles is the name of the great civil war that wracked (and later united) Deverry, Pyrdon, and Eldidd in the Kingdom of Deverry. It lasted from 750 when the High King Covramur of the Blue Wyvern clan dies without direct male heirs to 854, when Maryn takes the Holy City of Dun Deverry. Beginning The High King Covramur of the Blue Wyvern clan died in 750 without a male heir, leading three claimants to vie for the throne, the husbands of Covramur's daughters (disputedIn the second edition of Darkspell, it is the High King's sisters' husbands who vie for the throne, and his one daughter dying under mysterious circumstances, while in sources such as this: http://www.std.com/obi/OtherRealms/29.2 it is his daughters' husbands). The Gwerbret Cantrae, spurred by the ambitious Boar clan, though suspected of poisoning the High King, the Gwerbret Cerrmor and the Marked Prince of Eldidd all have claims, with Cerrmor and Cantrae being the main parties, with Eldidd harrying both on the border. 773-833 In 773, Gweniver of the Wolf clan loses all her male kin in their feud with the Boars and takes an oath as the first Moon-Sworn Warrior since the Dawntime, riding to join King Glyn I in Cerrmor. There she quickly becomes a dweomer-symbol for Cerrmor's cause. That same year, she captures Prince Mael of Eldidd, which leads to a long truce between Eldidd and Cerrmor, in effect until Mael is disclaimed as prince in favour of his son Ogretoryc. The fighting continues in a status quo where Dun Deverry is constantly contested, but remains mostly in the hands of Cantrae, which controls the iron supply in the north. In 793, the province of Pyrdon takes its chance and rebels against Eldidd, putting further stress on the latter's war efforts. In the negotiations between Eldidd and Cerrmor to relieve Eldidd of some pressure from its border, Mael is finally released from Cerrmor, having spent his twenty years of imprisonment becoming a published scholar. He receives the lands of Cannobaen from the King in Abernaudd and becomes known as Mael the Seer (and founds the Maelwaedd clan). In spite of the vagaries of war going one way and the other, the virtual deadlock continues until 833, with Pyrdon, well-funded by Cantrae and Cerrmor, managing to hold its own against Eldidd, Cantrae holding Dun Deverry and Cerrmor under Glyn's sons keeping up the pressure. Maryn's Rise In 833, Slwmar II, King in Deverry, is wounded in battle and later poisoned in his own court, but survives. The second son of Glyn II, King in Cerrmor, is stillborn, weakening both families. In 834, the first omens of the coming of the High King appears, with the clearest happening in Wmmglaedd, uttered by the priest Cinrae and witnessed by the head of the Order of Wmm, Pedraddyn, and the dweomer master Nevyn. The omen was as follows: : Look in the north and west. The lad who will be King has been born in the north and west. The King of all Deverry and all Eldidd has been born in a lake among the fishes and the water-reeds. He who will give peace trains for war. Darkspell, p. 140 (paperback) The same year the Silver Daggers were founded by Caradoc. During the following years, many omens were interpreted as foretelling the coming of the true king, and although they were true omens in some cases, insofar that they were a manifestation of the Deverrian soul, the interpretations were done according to a plot by the sorcerer Nevyn, his dweomer allies, and many of the priests of the kingdom (specifically those surrounding the High Priest of Lughcarn) to end the long civil war. To make sure that Prince Maryn of Pyrdon, who Nevyn and the priests thought fit the omens the best, would become a good ruler in his own right, Nevyn went to the household of King Casyl of Pyrdon in Drwloc in 837 to become the prince's tutor and teach him in the art of war and kingship. In 842 the Silver Daggers left their hire in Eldidd and went north to Pyrdon, where they were hired as Prince Maryn's personal guard in time for his first summer campaign in the civil war.